Trump posts Sen. Tom Cotton's phone number in daylight saving time dispute

President Donald Trump on Saturday posted what he said was Senator Tom Cotton's personal cellphone number on Truth Social, urging people to call the Arkansas Republican and pressure him to support a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent, according to multiple outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and Reuters.

The dispute centers on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would end the twice-yearly practice of changing clocks and make daylight saving time permanent nationwide. The bill passed the House in July but has stalled in the Senate, where Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, opposes it, according to The Guardian, Arab News and the Washington Examiner.

According to The Hill, Trump made the post on Truth Social in the morning and repeatedly criticized Cotton over his position on the bill, encouraging supporters to call the senator directly. The Daily Caller's headline characterized the post with the phrase

Supporters of the measure, including Trump and his administration, argue it would provide more daylight during hours when Americans are most active, according to The Guardian. Opponents, per the same report, say permanent daylight saving time would create darker winter mornings, posing potential hazards for children waiting for school buses and parents commuting to work in the dark.

Several outlets, including the Washington Examiner and The Washington Times, noted that the phone number was described as Cotton's

phone number, with Trump being the one to assert it belonged to the senator rather than it being independently confirmed by the outlets themselves.

How the coverage differed

Outlets across the spectrum converged on the same core facts: Trump posted a number he attributed to Cotton, urged people to call it, and the dispute centers on the Sunshine Protection Act. Left-leaning outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN emphasized the act of sharing a lawmaker's personal number as a notable escalation, with several, including NBC News and Politico, using the qualifier "appeared to" when describing the number's authenticity.

Right-leaning outlets, particularly The Daily Caller and Breitbart, used more pointed language, with The Daily Caller's headline describing the act as Trump "doxxing" the senator, a term not used by center or left-leaning outlets in the supplied material. Fox News and the Washington Examiner focused more on the legislative standoff itself, framing the story around the stalled bill and Cotton's opposition to it.

Center outlets, including Reuters, Arab News and The Japan Times, provided the most detail on the substance of the Sunshine Protection Act, including its passage in the House in July and its current status in the Senate. The Hill, also center-leaning per this grouping, was the only outlet to describe Trump as having "repeatedly berated" Cotton over the issue, a characterization not found in other sources.

Attention to the story appears roughly balanced across the three groups, with each side covering the basic facts similarly, though emphasis on the phone-number disclosure versus the policy dispute varied by outlet.